By
Deborah M. Piccurelli
While waiting for my son in a radiology facility the other day, I listened as, one after the other, patients were called, and either told they were finished, or apologized to for the delay, or taken in for their scheduled procedure. Each person, whether server, or recipient, exhibited much caring, humbleness and joviality. I watched an elderly gentlemen with a cane lumber out the double glass doors, as a woman entered. He held the door for her, and she thanked him. He said, “You’re welcome!” with cheerful conviction, as she, in turn, held the door for a woman exiting. Viewing all of this, I was “moved with compassion,” a phrase I’d become familiar with from my daily Bible reading.
It was Jesus, the Great Book tells us, who was moved with compassion many times for the masses who constantly pressed in around Him. I stopped and asked myself, “Am I like Jesus in that way? Like Him, do I have a heart for people?” I thought so. But when I dug deeper, I wasn’t sure. Of course, it’s easy to have compassion for friendly, cheerful, attractive, kind, considerate people; but what about the bitter, angry, standoffish, rude, unattractive, and inconsiderate? I just read a passage this morning in Luke, Chapter 6. It says:
And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? For sinners also
love those that love them.
And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? For
sinners also do even the same.
And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? For
sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again;
and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest:
for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
What? God is kind to the unthankful and to the evil? Okay, then. I guess that means that since I’m supposed to strive to be like Him, I should be doing the same thing.
So then back to my original question. Am I acting like Jesus? I am if I can be kind and compassionate to the unthankful and to the evil, as well as to the humble and the good. That’s a difficult and unthinkable task!
But then again, as the passage says, my “reward shall be great.”
